#TheSlayer is coming! Series Spotlight & #Giveaway with @Kele_Moon

Last month I was incredibly lucky to read a super early ARC of The Slayer and It. Blew. Me. Away. One of the best books I’ve read to date. Period. And also one of the best books Kele’s ever written. Considering I’ve loved pretty much every book on her back list, that’s REALLY saying something. I can’t even describe to you all the amount of feels, the swoons, and the hot flashes that Chuito gave me, so I won’t even try. The Slayer will be released on March 31, and I’ll be sharing lots of teasers with you guys in the meantime.

But before you get to get your grabby little hands on MY Chuito (uhem), I want to take you all back to the series that started it all for me; The Battered Hearts. Each week I’ll be spotlighting a different book from that series, leading up to Untamed Hearts with The Viper & The Slayer. In case you’re curious, you don’t necessarily need to read The Battered Hearts series before Untamed Hearts and each book has a different couple. I would still highly recommend reading Battered Hearts first simply because it’s a fantastic series and each of the characters from that series continues to appear in Untamed Hearts. You’d enjoy and appreciate every book that much more if you read them in order.

For those of you that haven’t yet read the Battered Hearts series, don’t forget to enter the Giveaway below. You’ll get a chance to win every book in the series or a $10 Amazon gift card!

So let’s start things off, shall we, with the man that started it all; Clay from Defying The Odds

When struggling waitress Melody Dylan gives a handsome, lonely stranger a simple gift she has no clue her life is about to take a drastic turn. The stranger ends up being Clay Powers, a famous UFC heavyweight fighter. Clay’s large build and dangerous fists have always intimidated. People in his hometown keep their distance and Clay is fine with that. Everything changes when a new waitress at the local diner buys him a piece of pie on thanksgiving. Touched by the gesture when it’s obvious she can barely afford to survive, her warm smile and lush body churn up powerful feelings that leave Clay wanting more from her than pie.

Melody is running from her past and the small, country town of Garnet is the perfect hiding place. With an ex-husband after her and scars from her abusive marriage etched deep, the last thing she expects is to fall for a man who makes a living with his fists, but she can’t resist Clay or the tender connection they share.

Finding love in the most unlikely of places, the passion is undeniable, but Clay and Melody know their haunted pasts and unpredictable futures leave the odds stacked against them.

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual situations, graphic language, and material that some readers may find objectionable: violence.

Clay looked at the small blue plate placed in front of him, his usual scowl growing deeper. “I didn’t order this.”

“It’s a gift.”

Clay’s gaze snapped to the new waitress. He eyed the attractive blonde in surprise. “For what?”

She gave him a broad smile that made her green eyes glow bright and vibrant beneath her black-rimmed glasses. “For Thanksgiving,” she said, her voice soft and musical to his ears. “I saw you were eating alone, and I thought, that man needs a piece of pumpkin pie.”

“Oh.”

He glanced back at the plate, resisting the urge to gag. He swallowed hard, choosing instead to focus on the warm feeling in his chest. He was oddly touched by the gift, simple though it might be. With the exception of his best friends, Wyatt and Jules, this waitress was the first person in a very long time that bothered to do something nice for him without expecting him to sweat or bleed in return.

She turned to leave, but he didn’t want her to. He liked the pretty waitress with her sparkling eyes and thick hair wrapped up in a bun on top of her head that showed every color of blonde imaginable. He thought her glasses were charming and her figure was lush. Full hips, even fuller breasts, she looked sort of like a very huggable angel. The fluorescent lights framed her beautiful, round face with deep dimples that magically appeared when she smiled.

Everything about her was soft and innocent in a way most of the women he knew would never be.

Without thinking, he reached out with lightning-fast reflexes. He grabbed her wrist before she could get too far, making her jump in shock.

Clay winced at her sharp reaction, knowing he was intimidating whether he wanted to be or not. “I’m sorry.”

“’S okay,” she said, her smile back, bright and happy once more. “I’m jumpy sometimes, but that’s not your fault.”

“I wanted to say thank you,” he said, trying very hard to put emotion in his usually gruff voice. “No one’s ever done this for me.”

“Bought you a piece of pie?”

“No.” He felt his cheeks heat, and he looked to the pie in an effort to hide. “Nobody’s just nice to me, for free, without, you know, expecting something for it.”

“Sweetie, you keep being sweet and I’m gonna have to buy your dinner, and between you and me, I can barely afford my own dinner, let alone feeding a big guy like you.” She squeezed his hand, making him realize he was still holding on to her wrist. “So you enjoy your pie. Happy Thanksgiving.”

Clay nodded his agreement and reluctantly let go. He bit his lip against doing something stupid like asking her on one of those dates real people had with flowers and candlelit dinners, or just simply blurting out he thought she looked like an honest to God angel in that waitress uniform.

Rather than gawk at the waitress, which was what he really felt like doing, he focused his attention on the pie, trying to decide if big bites would make it easier to choke down or small ones would lessen the impact.

He tried a small bite first as the chime of a bell signaled someone entering Hal’s Diner, one of the few places to eat in the small town of Garnet and the only one currently open on Thanksgiving. Despite the lack of choices for the holiday, Hal’s was still empty save a few bachelors.

Clay knew what lost soul had walked in without looking, and turned his focus back to the dreaded pie.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Sheriff.”

“Happy Thanksgiving, Judy,” came the upbeat, typically charismatic reply. “What does a hardworking sheriff have to do for a cup of coffee? Damn, but it’s cold out there. Where’s summer when ya need it?”

“That new waitress brought it,” Clay explained, the reminder compelling him to take another bite. He choked, forcing himself to swallow it. “Christ.”

“You’ve officially taken one hit too many,” Wyatt said in exasperation, turning to Judy when she showed up with his cup of coffee. “Darling, dontcha have something else back there besides pumpkin pie?”

“We got praline,” Judy offered, her cheeks still flushed beneath her freckles. The redhead was always pink-cheeked when Wyatt was around. “You want it before your dinner?”

“Nah, it ain’t for me.” Wyatt gestured to Clay. “He hates pumpkin pie. I dunno why he let her serve it to him. Get him a piece of praline.”

“No, it’s all right,” Clay said quickly, not wanting the new waitress to know he’d sent it back. He’d rather choke down the whole thing. “I like it.”

“Bullshit.” Wyatt reached across the table and pulled the plate away when Clay took another stubborn bite of the pie, only to gag on it a second time. “Look at that. He can’t even swallow it to prove a point.”